Wireless Industry Said to Need FCC Push to Deliver Hearing-Aid Compatible Handsets
The FCC should keep pressing manufacturers and carriers to deliver a full range of handsets for use by people with hearing problems, the Hearing Industries Association said in a filing at the agency. Meanwhile, small and mid-size carriers said they shouldn’t be held to the standards for hearing-aid compatible handsets applied to major carriers. The filings came in response a November request for comments by the FCC on proposed changes in its hearing-aid compatibility rules.
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“HIA urges the Commission to keep its sights on the fundamental objective of enabling hearing aid users to enjoy the benefits of new technologies as much as possible to the same extent as persons with full hearing,” the group said. To that end, the FCC should continue to require full reports by wireless companies on efforts to offer hearing-aid compatible (HAC) handsets, it said.
“The marketplace is not yet ready to ensure adequate availability of HAC products without continued Commission supervision,” HIA said. “There are not enough hearing aid wearers to be a strong enough market force to assure a full selection” of products without regulation.
The HIA backs a uniform standard for HAC handsets, it said. “It is especially important that HAC certification be granted only to handsets that are compliant in all frequency bands and modes in which they operate,” the group said. “Again, it is unreasonable to require hearing aid users to be sufficiently sophisticated in electronics to analyze what is behind the… rating on a handset box and to understand the differences among various frequency bands and operating modes to determine whether a partially compliant handset will meet their needs.” If the FCC allowed sale of partially compliant handsets, the labeling would need to be so detailed “it would likely be cited as an example of government ‘regulatory gobbledygook,'” HIA said.
Smaller carriers, meanwhile, asked that rules account for their inability to offer as many HAC handsets as larger rivals can. The FCC sought comment on whether the same requirements should apply to all carriers. “Non-hearing impaired customers should not be punished by protecting the rights of the hearing impaired,” the Rural Cellular Association said. “The public interest does not require such sacrifice. Small and mid-sized service providers cannot reasonably achieve the same quotas as Tier I carriers. Nor can they do so on the same schedule.”
Midsize carrier MetroPCS said a mandate that it make more HAC handsets available would require it to “vastly expand” its device line. “MetroPCS currently offers 15 unique handsets,” the company said. “This is a substantially smaller number of handsets than the Tier I carriers, who may have two or three times the number of handsets being offered by the Tier II/Tier III carriers.”
Major carriers and makers mostly urged the FCC to adopt a plan by industry and advocates for the hearing-impaired offered by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) in June (CD June 27 p6). Most opposed other changes floated in a notice of proposed rulemaking the commission released in seeking comments on the plan.
T-Mobile said the commission should adopt the consensus plan before a Feb. 18 deadline. “The Joint Consensus Plan represents a victory of cooperation over conflict and stalemate -- and drives all toward implementing the Commission’s longstanding policy of enhancing access to telecommunications by all Americans with hearing loss, including those with more profound hearing loss,” T-Mobile said. “To meet this aggressive schedule, T-Mobile also proposes that the Commission defer to one or more future proceedings any other issues from the NPRM that may not appear amenable to rapid resolution.” AT&T said the commission should “act expeditiously” to adopt the consensus plan but put off any other action under the notice.
Nokia said many questions in the notice are only “tangentially related” to the consensus plan. “These issues raise significant, and in many cases novel, questions that must be thoroughly considered by all parties involved, including representatives of those with hearing loss, the wireless industry, and the Commission, before any requirements are adopted,” Nokia said. Motorola said decisions on the notice should be put off until after the 700 MHz auction.